eCommerce

New Kid on the Blockchain: Cryptocurrencies and Your Website

By this time, you’ve probably heard of Bitcoin, and depending on what you’ve heard, you may either be intrigued by the idea or want nothing to do with it. But because increasing numbers of businesses and consumers have started transacting in Bitcoin, it’s worthwhile to give it a second look, and consider how it might fit in your business plan.

WordPress and E-Commerce: Better Together?

If you spend any time at all perusing the bazillion or so WordPress themes that are available, you will notice that, despite its origins as a blogging platform, WordPress can indeed take on many, if not all, functions that we would collectively call “e-commerce.” Whether it’s a simple “donate here” payment tool, a solid shopping cart, or an end-to-end shopping suite, you can put together a wide range of e-commerce features to fit your needs.

B2B or Not B2B: Design Considerations for B2B Sites

The customer was underwhelmed, to put it mildly. “Listen,” she said to the waiter as she handed the sorry excuse for a Reuben sandwich back to him. “Take this back, and tell the cook to make it like he would make it for himself.”

Snarky chutzpah? Hardly. Just a reasonable request for good value and good service. The point is clear: Treat your customers the way you would expect to be treated yourself. You know, the whole “do unto others” thing.

This should be especially easy if your customers are other businesses. Treat them the way you want to be treated, and provide a business-to-business (B2B) site that has the features you’d want to see in a B2B site.

The Payment Frontier: Moving Beyond Credit Cards

We remember a time when accepting credit cards was a huge selling point for business owners.It seemed so futuristic at the time—just swipe a piece of plastic, and get whatever you want. Pretty great, right?

While the advent of credit card payment systems was a groundbreaking moment for small business owners, they came at a time before we had Internet in every household. Thanks to improving technology and 24/7 connectivity, transactions take place on too many fronts to be limited to what can now be considered stone-age payment options.

Written in the Stars: Implementing a Product Rating System

Blame it all on Amazon.

The pioneering e-retailer was among the first to enable users to rate the company’s products. This was a bold move and somewhat counterintuitive. Although some brick-and-mortar businesses provided comment cards for customers to fill out, these businesses typically did not put them all (positive or negative) up on the wall for everyone to see. At best, they would make a few of the positive ones available as “customer testimonials.” Putting the negative ones up, too? Preposterous!

What is the right eCommerce platform to use?

When clients approach us about integrating eCommerce into their site, we often get the question: “What is the best eCommerce system to use on this project? Well, the answer depends typically on a few things we will dig into with this article.